Chapter 130 – They’re Rather Good, Aren’t They — My People, and Miss Letaria Too

Amid the silence of space, Priscilla's Radure appeared before Grain's Riese.

Riese, sleek in its black-and-white color scheme, and the beautiful Radure, its vivid blue set off by pure white, faced each other quietly amid the drifting debris.

"Miss Priscilla, go easy on me, would you."

Grain said this over the comm even as he fired a burst shot from the Arcian. At nearly the same moment, Priscilla's Radure fired a flash of high-output photon laser from the Photon Rifle held in its right hand.

"Likewise, Mr. Grain. I look forward to it."

Priscilla answered in a composed, dignified voice, dodging the incoming Arcian burst shots with graceful, economical movement. One shot, two, three -- she evaded every single one along a line that looked as though she'd read them all in advance.

Grain, for his part, snapped into a barrel roll and slipped past the photon laser.

Priscilla's machine pulled back to open some distance, firing rapid bursts from the small Photon Beam Gun on its left arm as a check.

Grain evaded with room to spare, calmly turning the situation over in his mind.

Judging by the large thrusters on her back, Priscilla's machine was a high-mobility type. Riese, too, was built to prioritize mobility and responsiveness. As tactical types, the two were quite similar... but--

Just as he pushed that analysis further, the machine signatures for Ranses, Adelina, and Ethan all vanished at once from the data links on both Grain's and Priscilla's sides.

"...To think both Lieutenant Ranses and Sergeant Adelina would be shot down. That was entirely unexpected."

Priscilla let out a small sigh of admiration, and immediately launched a spread of multi-purpose missiles upward from the containers on her machine's back.

"They're rather good, aren't they -- my people, and Miss Letaria both."

Grain gave a short laugh and began bringing his sights to bear, intending to intercept the missiles before they could deploy -- but Priscilla's Photon Rifle opened fire to stop him from doing exactly that.

A custom-spec Photon Rifle, excelling in muzzle velocity and penetrating power. It wasn't the kind of shot he could dodge without difficulty while looking elsewhere. Grain instantly gave up on pursuing the missiles and, in kind, reset his own Arcian to meet the attack head-on.

Having advanced the Arcian's energy charge in parallel beforehand, he fired a string of burst shots in succession, followed by a maximum-charge shot.

Priscilla's machine dodged the burst shots with brilliant grace, but the direction her evasion led her into had a massive piece of debris blocking the way. The instant her movement was constrained, the maximum-charge shot closed in without a moment's delay, on a direct collision course.

Priscilla instantly thrust her left arm forward. The beam cannon unit mounted on it lit up with a dazzling glow.

High-energy photons collided head-on, and an explosive scatter of photon particles burst across the space.

But amid the violent impact, the weapon mounted on Priscilla's machine's left arm was shattered to fragments and scattered into space.

"What an extraordinarily high-output rifle...!"

What had been mounted on Priscilla's machine's left arm was a composite weapon combining a Photon Beam Cannon with a localized Photon Shield. But the maximum-charge beam fired by the Arcian had forced its way straight through even that high-output shield.

Without hesitation, Priscilla purged the ruined composite weapon, lightening her machine's load.

"I see... to think it even had a Photon Shield built in..."

Grain murmured, sounding impressed.

Keeping a Photon Shield deployed consumed a tremendous amount of generator output, so using one in actual combat demanded the extremely advanced technique she'd just shown -- deploying it only for the instant of impact. While it boasted absolute defensive power beyond even a solid shield, it was a piece of equipment with real risk, falling well short in usability and energy efficiency.

"But... I couldn't block it entirely. Here I come!"

The thrusters on Priscilla's machine's back blazed with blue energy at full output. It closed in at tremendous acceleration, swinging around toward Riese's flank.

Grain aimed the Arcian's barrel to intercept and fired, but Priscilla's machine adjusted its thrust with fluid unpredictability, varying its acceleration irregularly -- an erratic maneuver that threw off even Grain's predictions.

Priscilla's machine closed to point-blank range against Riese at hyper-acceleration. From the barrel of the rifle gripped in its right hand, a pure white blade of light extended in an instant.

Riese's Photon Saber, drawn in the same instant, and the blade of Priscilla's machine's bayonet-style Photon Saber collided head-on, scattering violent sparks and energy particles.